1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a penile elevator for treatment of a patient of erectile impotence which is a relatively frequent occurrence,
The penile elevator according to the present invention implies a device which can be implanted under the skin of the lower abdomen and the scrotum by an operational method to thereby allow the patient of erectile impotence to engage in successful copulation at will, and the penile elevator according to the present invention is constructed to allow a cylinder member to elongate or shrink against a support member according to the erection or shrinkage of the penis.
2. Description of Prior Art
The use of implantable, inflatable penile prosthesis for the management of erectile impotence is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,151,841, 4,267,829, 4,807,608, 5,129,880 and the like.
According to the penile prosthesis described in these U.S. Patents, in order to implant the prosthesis in the scrotum of the patient, a method of surgical treatment has been adopted wherein spongy tissue comprising the scrotum is cut open by a surgical knife and thereafter a flexible or expansible penile prosthesis is fixedly implanted.
The treatment method of erectile impotence by way of fixedly implanting the conventional penile prosthesis in the spongy tissue of the penis has a drawback in that the spongy tissue which is the inner structure of the penis should be destructed and the penile prosthesis should be fixedly implanted therein, which calls for complex surgical processes, and in the case of psychogenic or neurogenic erectile impotence, or physically curable erectile impotence as causes of the impotence, if the causes therefor are discovered and are thereby recovered, there is no way of reinstating the spongy tissue to its former condition because the tissue has been completely damaged even though the prosthesis fixedly implanted in the spongy tissue of the penis is removed, thus causing a user to be a permanent patient of erectile impotence.
Furthermore, there is another drawback in that the user is awkwardly limited in his social activities because the penile prosthesis fixedly implanted in the spongy tissue of the penis is always placed in an upright position.